We are authorised by our Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL) to provide an equity crowd-sourced funding service through our PledgeMe platform. The PledgeMe platform allows an eligible Australian company, who has entered into an issuer agreement and has been approved by us to use our platform (Issuer), to raise up to $5 million per year from the issue of fully paid ordinary shares to investors (Campaign). We are acting on our behalf when we provide financial services to clients.

When an equity campaign is successful and reaches or exceeds the funding goal the campaign requires, the total amount raised by the contributions of the supporters is passed on to the creator of the project, minus the percentage due to PledgeMe and tariffs charged by our credit card gateway, SQID.

If a campaign is not successful and doesn't reach its funding goal, the funding intended for the campaign doesn't get charged to the supporters of the campaign.

PledgeMe only approaches campaign creators and investors or supporters of campaigns. We don't generate employment relationships, employment, association or partnership between the users and PledgeMe, and we don't represent business transactions or selling products or services.

Definitions

A campaign creator is the user of PledgeMe interested in raising funds for an Australian unlisted public company. It's their role to:

Create a full offer document in respect of its campaign. The Offer Document contains specific information about the Issuer, the offer and investor rights, as well as the prescribed risk warning about crowd-sourced funding to assist in making an informed decision about acquiring shares in an offer.

details about the ordinary shares on offer including the minimum and maximum subscription amounts set by you and details about the rights attaching to those shares.

A pledger is the user of PledgeMe interested in investing in a campaign creator’s company through PledgeMe. It's their role to:

be registered as an investor with us;

carefully read the relevant Offer Document;

specify the amount of money you would like to invest in the Issuer (up to a maximum of $10,000 per Campaign as an Australian retail investor). The Campaign page will then calculate the number of shares equivalent to this amount. The issue price will also be clearly published on the Campaign page and in the Offer Document; and

purchase the shares once the Campaign closes and you have been verified.

PledgeMe uses registration information from Facebook or you can directly join PledgeMe. The account access may be done by entering the username and password in the login fields on Facebook or PledgeMe. In order to invest, you will need to complete an investor registration. We will carry out a number of checks to ensure that you are eligible to purchase the shares. We need to collect of your identification information to meet our obligations under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006, and your full name and address will be provided to the Issuer on the successful completion of the campaign. This information will be publicly available once their share register is updated. Our privacy policy and information handling practices are set out in our Privacy Policy Statement, which you can find in the footer of our website.

The user is solely responsible for the security of his username and password. It is through this data that the user can access and change their personal information and other data from their registration.

If there is any suspected misuse or unauthorised use of your account, immediately notify PledgeMe by email on [email protected]

PledgeMe will never use your registration information to conduct any illegal activities.

Fees and Payments

Once the Campaign closes, we will let pledgers know and confirm that they are required to pay for their shares either:

by completing an electronic payment/transfer within ten (10) days of receiving the payment details. We will provide you with the payment/transfer details for our trust account once your identity and address have been verified, and after the completion of the Campaign the expiry of your Cooling-off Period.; or

by credit card by using our secure transaction provider, in which case your card will be charged after the Campaign closes, your identity and address have been verified and your Cooling-off Period has expired.

If the Issuer withdraws, or we are required to remove their Campaign, we will let the pledgers know. If this occurs, pledgers will not be required to pay for the shares they have applied to purchase.

We will charge Issuers a fee of 6% (GST inclusive) of the total amount raised through their completed Campaign. For example, if a Campaign raised $1 million, we would receive a fee of $60,000 from the Issuer.

We do not charge pledgers any fees to use our platform. However, if pledgers use their credit card to pay for the shares purchased in relation to a Campaign, the cost of using that credit card will be passed onto the pledger. This fee is currently 1.75% + 30 cents plus GST per transaction. For example, for a $5,000 transaction, you would be charged a fee of $96.58 in addition to your $5,000 investment.

Unless otherwise specified, all rates are quoted in Australian Dollars (AUD$). The user is responsible for paying all fees and taxes associated with the use of PledgeMe. If a campaign is withdrawn from PledgeMe for violating our Issuer Agreement, violation of law or by court order, all the supporting pledges' will be cancelled.

Please note that SQID Payments and PledgeMe are independent, and PledgeMe gives no warranty in respect of payments processed by SQID Payments and is not responsible for failures of credit cards.

Intellectual property

PledgeMe owns the intellectual property rights relating to its own service, which are protected by Australian law and international treaties. The rights of PledgeMe does not include any rights related to content created by users and displayed in PledgeMe.

The campaign creator is the holder of intellectual property rights of their own campaign including copyright-related laws. However, all campaign creators should be aware that by trying to raise funds publicly, the idea could be developed and copied by others. PledgeMe cannot prevent this from occurring, nor has responsibility for this situation. PledgeMe reserves the right at its sole discretion, and as notified, to cancel campaigns and terminate the accounts of campaign creators that violate intellectual property rights of others or violate other rights guaranteed by Australian law.

PledgeMe reserves the right to remove content or refuse to serve any content to users. PledgeMe also reserves the right to access, read, preserve, and disclose any information necessary to fulfil this contract, comply with laws or respond to court orders.

Privacy Policy

We do all we can to provide you with the best service possible, we take your privacy and security seriously and would never supply your information to a third party. We avoid keeping any data that isn’t absolutely required.

All credit card information is fully maintained by SQID Payments, a PCI compliant company. Being PCI compliant means SQID Payments must fulfil all credit card security requirements. It also means that PledgeMe has got absolutely no access to this information, we rely on SQID Payments to confirm whether your pledge was approved or not.

Our full privacy policy can be viewed here: https://www.pledgeme.com.au/pages/privacy

Email

PledgeMe will only send you emails related to your pledges, or if there are updates to our terms and conditions. We will also email you if you have signed up for our newsletter. If you are a campaign creator we notify you when a pledge is received, when you receive a question on your campaign, and to update you on your campaign.

Cancellation Policy

If you change your mind, you can withdraw your application within five (5) business days (Cooling-off Period). You can withdraw your pledge by emailing [email protected] within five (5) business days of making your pledge.

Once the Campaign closes, we will let you know and confirm that you are required to pay for your shares either:

by completing an electronic payment/transfer within ten (10) days of receiving the payment details. We will provide you with the payment/transfer details for our trust account once your identity and address have been verified, and after the completion of the Campaign the expiry of your Cooling-off Period.; or

by credit card by using our secure transaction provider, in which case your card will be charged after the Campaign closes, your identity and address have been verified and your Cooling-off Period has expired.

If the Issuer withdraws, or we are required to remove their Campaign, we will let you know. If this occurs, you will not be required to pay for the shares you have applied to purchase.

Refund / Return Policy

PledgeMe does not offer refunds once a pledge has been processed.

Complaints Policy

If you have any comments or complaints in connection with our services, please contact us at:

We will acknowledge any complaint immediately or, if not possible, as soon as practicable and make every effort to resolve your issue within 45 days.

If you unhappy with our response, you can refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service Limited (FOS), of which we are a member. FOS is an external dispute resolution service provider, which provides free advice and assistance to consumers to help resolve complaints relating to financial service providers.

Crowd-sourced funding is risky. Issuers using this facility include new or rapidly growing
ventures. Investment in these types of ventures is speculative and carries high risks.

You may lose your entire investment, and you should be in a position to bear this risk without
undue hardship.

Even if the company is successful, the value of your investment and any return on the
investment could be reduced if the company issues more shares.

Your investment is unlikely to be liquid. This means you are unlikely to be able to sell
your shares quickly or at all if you need the money or decide that this investment is not
right for you.

Even though you have remedies for misleading statements in the offer document or misconduct
by the company, you may have difficulty recovering your money.

There are rules for handling your money. However, if your money is handled inappropriately
or the person operating this platform on which this offer is published becomes insolvent,
you may have difficulty recovering your money.

Ask questions, read all information given carefully, and seek independent financial advice
before committing yourself to any investment.